An image of North Manitou Island, with South Manitou in the background. (By Wade Renando (Own work by the original uploader) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons)

Legend has it, two bear cubs once set out to swim across Lake Michigan, but died trying. Their mother, already distraught by the possibility of them making it to Wisconsin and becoming Green Bay Packers fans, then lay on the shore, an eternal vigil for her perished young.

That's the story, more or less, of how the Sleeping Bear Dunes and North and South Manitou Island came to be. My guess would have had something to do with glacial movement and melt, or erosion, or some other boring thing I dozed off to during a filmstrip in earth science class freshman year. But hey, why get in the way of a good story, right?

Any Michigander worth his or her weight in Petoskey stones and IPAs would deem North and South Manitou Island among our state's most picturesque locales. In fact, they're so beautiful, the first thing many people do upon seeing them is throw up, because the ferry ride from Leland can be more choppy than a lumberjack after a half-dozen espressos.

That stretch of water, the Manitou Passage, is historically rough. It has a reputation for devouring ships, an insatiable hunger for schooners and frigates and steamers and freighters. I'm sure it ate a bunch of rafts and canoes as appetizers and midnight snacks, too.

So there's some beast to go with the beauty of the Manitou islands, which I here sum up in the following conglomeration of bone-dry facts lubricated with good-natured jokes. (As a lifelong Michigander, I'm allowed to do that.) Enjoy the trip.

(Courtesy Google maps)

First, the basics

North Manitou is a 12-mile choppy ride from Leland. It's eight miles long, four miles wide and features 20 miles of shoreline, with an area of 22.34 square miles. It has 23 miles of trails.

South Manitou is a 16-mile bump-and-barf trip from Leland. It's three miles long by three miles wide, with an area of 8.27 square miles. South Manitou may be the smaller of the two, but it doesn't have an inferiority complex, because it frequently boasts to its sibling, "At least my lighthouse didn't fall down."

Her name was Rita Hadra Rusco. When the area was declared Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore in 1970, the National Parks Service slowly bought up all the private property for public use. According to a 1999 article in The Grand Rapids Press, when Rita moved to the island in 1942, becoming one of the 50 local residents, she and her husband worked as spotters during World War II, watching for any enemy airplanes that might target the Soo Locks.

She lived year-round on the island until 1953. Eventually, she lived there during the warm months, in a cottage, and as she became North Manitou's only remaining holdout, she'd mingle with campers, sharing stories and giving them water. As the local historian, she wrote a popular book about her one-time home, titled "North Manitou Island: Between Sunrise and Sunset," published in 1996.

An olde tyme photo-graph of South Manitou Island buildings that no longer are home to the human species. (George Brown Goode [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons)

Ghost towns and cemeteries

Both islands are home to the remains of its former residents, literally populating marked cemeteries. People logged and farmed the land for many decades before Great Lakes shipping dwindled and the islands' simple industries became cost-prohibitive. Residents gradually moved away, abandoning homes and cottages, emptying sawmills and blacksmith shops, leaving behind gutted general stores and hotels in villages. This is the story of pretty much every ghost town, but not every ghost town is surrounded by water on all sides, so these are obviously more special than the normal boring ones.

Notably, North Manitou was home to a U.S. Life-Saving Station, because the Manitou Passage was a popular shipwreck destination. For sure, there is no more picturesque locale on the Great Lakes to sink your vessel, and the sailors who survived such traumatic ordeals were rewarded with rich scenery, impressive dunes to climb and other such natural wonders of Michigan. It's almost worth nearly drowning to experience such a lovely environment. (More on the shipwrecks on a minute.)